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UPDATE: Prep Volleyball: BOLD falls at state tournament

Tribune photo by Rand Middleton
Minneota's Taylor Reiss (9) tips a shot over BOLD's Mallarie Steffel (6) while the Warriors' Carly Sigurdson prepares for a dig in the quarterfinals of the Class A state tournament Thursday in St. Paul. Minneota won the match in three games.

ST. PAUL -- "There's no place like State" ... "There's no place like State...."

You just never know where the Yellowbrick road might lead. But even if you don't win, it's the place to be in November.

"Well, I'm not too impressed right now because we lost," said BOLD senior Tyann Caspers. "But I'm glad we're here as a team."

Tourney-savvy Minneota made short work of the Warriors in their first appearance Thursday afternoon at the Xcel Energy Center, winning 25-12, 25-19, 25-19.

"We can play a lot better than we did today," said Caspers, a middle hitter who was held to four aces in 27 attacks by the Vikings' defense.

"We played hard, but we definitely were nervous," said sophomore hitter Samantha Luepke, one of four underclassmen in the starting lineup. "I just think we could have pushed it more; we didn't leave it all on the court."

Maybe. But Minneota (27-6) is just one tough team. Sensational freshman Taylor Reiss elevated for 20 kills with just two attack errors in 38 wallops.

"We just weren't able to double up in the middle," said BOLD coach Paula Dunn, "(Reiss) is so hard to block because she can get so high and hesitate you don't know which way she's going. You can only guess."

And it wasn't only Reiss. Molly Hennen, a 5-foot-10 sophomore middle hitter, delivered 15 kills with four errors in 36 attacks.

"We just tried to run quicker balls (to the hitters) to pull their blockers out of position," said Hennen.

The Warriors had a nice run to start Game 2, leading by as many as three points, 10-7, on a kill by Carly Sigurdson, and then 11-8 on a Nikki Neisen put-away.

The last lead was at 15-14 on a Vikings' service error. From there, the No. 3 seed in the tournament field went on a 11-4 run to go up 2-0.

"Give Minneota credit," said Neisen, who supplied 12 kills in 39 hits. "But I still think it's all on our team. We didn't play like a team; it was all individual. We'd run off five or six good points then lose it."

Neisen said she wasn't that nervous on the bright Xcel court in the large arena, where the two courts are divided by a high curtain.

"Their offense is pretty quick," she added. "We for sure didn't get that many ace blocks. Tomorrow we've just got to focus, pass better and play together."

BOLD (21-9) plays in the consolation semifinal today at 3 p.m. If they win, they can spend another day at State.